DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

August 11, 2026August 10, 2026

Solar Eclipse Design

On August 12th, 2026, a total solar eclipse will pass over Greenland, Iceland, and northern Spain. A partial eclipse will be visible across parts of the northeastern United States just before 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Within the band where totality is visible, it will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks our view of the Sun. Because of the Moon’s unique size and distance from Earth, its shadow can almost precisely cover the Sun when they align. That precision allows us to briefly see the Sun’s corona, the outer atmosphere that extends millions of miles from the Sun’s surface. Normally, the corona is invisible because the bright light of the Sun’s photosphere, the visible surface, overwhelms it.

During a total solar eclipse, the corona and white streamers extending far from the Sun become visible. At the same time, pink loops, or prominences, can appear around the Moon’s edge. These are giant structures of ionized hydrogen plasma suspended above the Sun’s surface by its magnetic field. I know from experience that witnessing a total solar eclipse is exciti n g. More than that, it’s also an opportunity for scientific investigation. During such an eclipse in 1919, scientists confirmed Einstein’s theory that gravity can bend light.

We earthlings are blessed by the design of the Sun and Moon and their locations, allowing us to witness and be inspired by a total eclipse of the Sun. How can we know exactly when and where a solar eclipse or a lunar eclipse will appear and how long it will last? Only because of the design of our solar system. We can see solar eclipses and predict when they will occur because God has created a solar system that is predictable and well organized.

August 10, 2026August 9, 2026

Gender Dysphoria and the Church

A major challenge the Church faces is how to address young people with gender dysphoria. This issue has been complicated by medical experts and counselors who encourage young people to undergo drug treatments and surgeries for gender change. The American Medical Association and the Society of Plastic Surgeons have led the medical establishment in promoting sex-change procedures, and public-school counselors have encouraged primary and secondary students to change their gender identification and pronouns.

The long-term consequences of gender change are becoming more apparent. Males who choose to identify as women have dominated women’s sports. Men and women who have undergone gender-change surgeries are finding, years later, that they made a mistake. Recently, a New York woman sued her psychologist and plastic surgeon and was awarded two million dollars by a jury. She was pressured into a mastectomy at age 16 and put on hormone therapy. As an adult, she realized she wanted to live by her birth gender and was either not told or did not understand the consequences that would arise later in life.

The Bible makes it clear that God created man and woman with distinct gender identities. Undoing what God created is to challenge God and the biblical directives. It is essential for the Church to address gender dysphoria in young people. The cause is psychological and, in most cases, rooted in environmental problems.

The Church is not just a place to worship but a fellowship of Christ followers who must address all human needs. In Matthew 25:34-40, we see Jesus challenging those who want to enter “the kingdom prepared for them since the creation of the world.” Among the things expected of them was to take care of those who were sick. Gender dysphoria is a sickness, and like all of Satan’s attacks, it calls for loving care from His people.

Reference: The Week for February 26, 2026, page 12.

August 6, 2026August 5, 2026

A Reader’s Digest Joke

A Reader’s Digest joke on page 51 of the August/September 2026 issue conveys an important message. The joke goes like this: “An atheist is rowing on Loch Ness in Scotland when the Loch Ness Monster attacks him. The petrified atheist shouts, ‘God, help me!’ And suddenly the monster freezes. A voice from heaven booms, ‘You say you don’t believe in me, but now you ask for my help?’ The atheist shrugs, ‘Well, ten seconds ago I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness Monster either.’”

Modern-day atheists say they don’t believe in God because they haven’t seen Him and don’t see His activity in the affairs of this world. This ministry exists to show all who will look that there is evidence for God’s existence. Most people who say they don’t believe in God are unwilling to look at the evidence or admit that the Bible is more than just a human creation but came from God.

If you don’t believe in God or have doubts, please go to our website, doesgodexist.tv, and see the evidence demonstrated in the videos. Start with program #1 (don’t just skip around), and watch it. If you have questions, go to jncdge@aol.com or call 269-687-9426 and ask me. If you don’t have questions, go to program #2 and repeat the process. If we don’t have answers (and we certainly don’t have all the answers), we will send your question to someone who does. If you go through all 36 programs, you will see how much evidence there is. You can KNOW there is a God and that the Bible is His Word (Romans 1:20), but like the atheist in the Reader’s Digest joke, you have to look.

August 5, 2026August 4, 2026

The Courage to Help Someone in Need

Americans are a culture of cowards. We should have the courage to help someone in need. What do we feel when we see a homeless person, or someone on a street corner holding a cardboard sign that says, “Need Food”? Of course, some people make a business of begging and have no real need, but we cannot let that fact keep us from doing what Jesus called His followers to do.

Matthew 9:35-36 tells us: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages …healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” What is your reaction to needs? In Michael Clemen’s book Why Aren’t Christians More Like Jesus, he points out that real Christianity is doing what Jesus would do. James 2:14-26 points out that faith without compassion is useless (verse 20). Our faith must have feet. Going to a building where you sit in a pew once a week is not what being a Christian is about. Clemens calls that “Churchianity.”

Every person we read about in the Bible who was converted to Christ had the courage to help someone in need. In Acts 9, Dorcas was making garments for the needy. In Acts 16, Lydia opened her home for people who needed lodging, including Paul. Throughout the book of Acts, Barnabas was an encourager. Today, the opportunities for service include caring for people who can’t care for themselves, helping care for children, or getting groceries or medicine for a shut-in. If you have the skills, it might be maintaining or repairing a vehicle for someone who can’t afford it. It could even be visiting or using your phone to encourage someone who needs a friend.

A living, dynamic faith is a faith of action. Read James 2:14-26 and be like Christ. Jesus was not a wimp, and neither can His followers be.

August 4, 2026August 3, 2026

God’s Design of the Central Nervous System

One of the great mysteries of science has been the properties of human beings that separate them from all other living things. Pharmacist and pastor Shawn Arstein wrote that modern tools of medical research show that God’s design of the central nervous system “affects mood, motivation, memorization, pain, pleasure, action, response, love, and fear—and it also regulates the heart.” He said the miles of nerve threads that connect body parts from head to toe illustrate how God “is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:6).

The fall of Adam and Eve demonstrates how sin affects the central nervous system (CNS), causing neurological instability. In Genesis 3:10, Adam says, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Fear, hiding, and blame-shifting resulted. The story of Cain in Genesis 4:1-12 also shows CNS instability, with anger, murder, denial, being downcast, and panic.

Adam’s rebellion altered his nervous system both physically and spiritually. In Genesis 2:17, God had told Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will certainly die.” What did God mean by that? Adam didn’t drop dead from physical poisoning. The key to understanding this death lies in the term “naked” in verse 25. God’s design of the central nervous system involves myelin surrounding the axons of neurons, insulating them and allowing electrical impulses to pass at a faster rate. According to Arstein, severing the Spirit from the image of God is like leaving the central nervous system stripped of a protective layer, allowing a short in a wire. Adam and Eve looked alive, but the connection with God vanished, making them feel vulnerable in their nakedness. Simultaneously, the knowledge of evil brought anxiety, fear, and chaos. Nakedness demanded a response, and fig leaves provided the first coping strategy for stability.

Because of God’s design of the central nervous system, the fruits of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23 enable humans to battle evil, resulting in changed behavior and stability. Achieving that stability, however, requires effort. Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Seeing God’s design of the central nervous system and how He helps us, as Christians, to walk in the light instead of in darkness (1 John 1) is essential for our growth as children of God.

Reference: godandnatureasa3.org 2026 #2

August 3, 2026August 2, 2026

The Pale Blue Dot

The picture above is the “Pale Blue Dot” photograph, taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1990. At the time, Voyager 1 was 3.8 billion miles (6 billion km) from Earth and moving away. The camera was about to be shut down to save power, since it was not going to fly close to any planet as it was leaving the solar system. Before shutdown, the mission commander ordered the probe to take 60 images to form a “Family Portrait of the Solar System.” Thirty-four minutes after it took this picture, the camera was shut down forever. In the picture, the Sun is below, and the pale blue dot you can barely see in a sunbeam is planet Earth.

This year, prominent atheists became upset by astronaut Victor Glover’s words aboard Artemis 2 during its historic trip around the Moon. Some even expressed concern about the “separation of church and space.” However, when he spoke from space, he seemed to receive approval from the other astronauts, but not from atheists on the ground. Some of Glover’s words that apparently upset atheists include, “You’re on a spaceship called Earth that was created to give us a place to live in the universe. You are special. In all of this emptiness, this is a whole bunch of nothing, this thing we call the universe, you have this oasis, this beautiful place that we get to exist together.” The pale blue dot is not insignificant.

Why should those words distress anyone? Many early scientists explored creation because they believed in an orderly universe created by an intelligent God. Many astronauts have said that being in space gave them a spiritual experience as they realized that Earth reveals design and purpose. Many leading science popularizers have tried to tell us that science destroys Christian belief. Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, Michael Shermer, Lawrence Krauss, and others have written popular books arguing that science makes belief in God unnecessary and implausible. The truth is that scientific discoveries continue to support belief in God and challenge atheism.

Astronomer Carl Sagan was partially responsible for the picture of the pale blue dot, and he popularized the term in his book by the same name. He wrote, “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all its vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” He also said that Earth is such a tiny pale blue dot in the universe that it shows we have no privileged position in the cosmos. Sagan was a brilliant man, but he overlooked the fact that Someone did come from elsewhere to save us. Victor Glover knows that is true. He said that we are not a lonely cosmic accident, but instead, we are loved, and those who believe in Jesus Christ agree.

July 30, 2026July 27, 2026

Broken Promises

We live in an age of broken promises. Nations break treaties. Professional athletes dishonor contracts. Politicians go back on campaign promises. Spouses abandon wedding vows. Even in business, we sign legal documents pledging to honor agreements. Yet lawyers still take businesses to court over broken promises.

The one place where we can find promises that will not be broken is in God’s Word. When God makes a promise, He always keeps it. Hebrews 6:13-15 gives us a model of God’s promises and how they are kept: “When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.’ And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” We find no broken promises there.

Although we sometimes must wait to receive what God has promised, God always delivers. The most important promise God gives to you and me is the promise of salvation. God says, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The PROMISE is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord God will call.”

We don’t have to worry about our future because God has promised eternal life to us. All human religions contain broken promises, but the promises of God contained in the Bible will never be broken.

July 29, 2026July 27, 2026

Chimpanzee Civil War

One of the doctrines of Darwinism is that animals are driven by a basic obedience to “survival of the fittest.” The fit survive, and the less fit do not, and that determines the future and existence of the life form. In Darwinism, war is viewed as a human creation based on politics, history, or economics. In Darwinian terms, the only time an animal would kill another of its own species is when a male kills the babies of a female he wishes to mate with to produce his own progeny. More recent research indicates a chimpanzee civil war.

Recent studies of chimpanzees in Uganda have shown that the roughly 200 chimpanzees in Kibale National Park have split into two groups of about 100 individuals and have declared war on each other. The groups have been called the Central and Western clusters. Between 2018 and 2024, researchers witnessed Western adults kill seven males and 17 infants from the Central group. An additional 14 adolescent or adult Central males disappeared during that time, and their bodies were never recovered. Researchers have documented two more attacks on Central males since the study ended in 2024.

Primatologist Jane Goodall observed a chimpanzee civil war in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, with several chimpanzees killing others in the 1970s. However, it was assumed that the action was not natural, but because humans gave Gombe chimpanzees bananas. We now know that this is normal chimpanzee behavior and that war is not restricted to humans. What we have now seen among chimpanzees has also been seen among lions, dogs, cats, and hyenas, and has been misunderstood by Darwinists. Behavior among higher forms of life is not just controlled and driven by sex and food.

Because humans have a spiritual makeup in the image of God, we can live together without violence or conflict. Read Matthew 5-7, and you see a blueprint for how that is possible. Jesus brought peace to mankind, but greed, politics, and selfishness have corrupted what God intended for us.

Reference: Scientific American for July/August 2026, pages 10-11.

July 28, 2026July 27, 2026

Dragonflies and God’s Design

Imagine what this world would be like if there were no controls on the number of bugs we have to contend with. Insects are part of the food chain on our planet, but there is a difficult balance between insects as food for birds and fish, and making life miserable for humans. God has given us dragonflies to control other insects.

Dragonflies live in various environments, from wetlands to desert pools to mountains, on every continent except Antarctica. There are 3012 species known to science, and they demonstrate God’s genius of design. To catch and eat other insects, dragonflies must be fast enough to outfly them. One dragonfly species has been clocked at 60 mph (96 km/h). They must also make quick turns, and researchers have found that they can experience 9 Gs when turning to catch prey. If a dragonfly gets upside down, it can right itself in .2 seconds.

Dragonflies have a wingbeat of 30 times per second, and their eyes can take in their surroundings and process 200 images per second, allowing them to capture and eat various insects. Dragonflies have virtually no enemies at any stage of life. In the nymph stage, they have gills, so they develop underwater and feed on mosquito larvae, among other things. Unlike most other insects, dragonflies produce relatively few offspring, helping maintain the balance between predator and prey.

Scientists study dragonflies to improve flight technology, and they amaze us with their complexity and design that allows them to be insect predators. In Job 38:39-41, God challenges Job to explain how various forms of life find food. Everywhere we look, we see that a wonder-working hand has gone before. Romans 1:20 tells us that we can know there is a God through the things He has made, and the dragonfly is an example of that truth.

July 27, 2026July 26, 2026

Marine Fungi – God’s Solution for Ocean Pollution?

Marine Fungi – God’s Solution for Pollution

One of the great challenges facing humanity today is the amount of plastic pollution in our oceans. Polyurethane plastic is among the most prevalent and harmful pollutants in our oceans today. Researchers have found marine fungi that decompose plastic and turn it into food. Up to 60% of the fungi researchers have found in the ocean have some ability to eat plastic.

Research continues to see whether marine fungi can break down other forms of plastic, such as polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. Since less than 1% of ocean fungi are documented, our knowledge is very limited. Dr. Anthony Amend at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa says, “Fungi possess a superpower for eating things that other organisms can’t digest.”

The basic point of this ministry is that science and faith are 100% supportive of one another. There is no conflict between science and faith, and every scientific discovery supports that. We continually see support for the statement in Romans 1:20, which says that “we can know there is a God through the things He has made.” From the galaxies of outer space to the simple cells of marine fungi, we see this truth demonstrated.

Climate change and environmental issues are problems that can be solved by scientists and Christians working together. We need to encourage Christian young people with an aptitude for science to get involved in learning more about God’s creation. That is one of the goals of this ministry.

Reference: Discover Magazine for Summer 2026, page 20.